Good Friday morning Caps fans. Hope you’ve been having a great week and are gearing up for a break this weekend.

The Caps’ Leagues Cup adventure did not begin the way they hoped, as they were soundly outplayed by Liga MX newcomers Atlante on Tuesday at BC Place. The 1-0 defeat likely takes the Caps out of the running to advance, as you have to be almost perfect to be one of the top four MLS sides who move on to the knockout round.

I’ve seen a lot of despair about the performance on Tuesday, which admittedly was not great. It was pretty much the Caps’ B team, feat. Andres Cubas and Edier Ocampo, and it showed in the result.

But you’re not going to get me to take Leagues Cup seriously enough to consider it a meaningful data point about whether the Caps will struggle for the rest of the season.

Let’s put it this way: Vancouver had to play its backups on three days rest in a Mickey Mouse competition that they shouldn’t even be in (but for the greed of MLS to put Thomas Müller on as many TV screens as possible) against a team that has beaten Cruz Azul and drawn with Club America in recent weeks. That framing makes things feel a bit less dire.

The concern is understandable, as the Caps haven’t looked like themselves since the World Cup break and sold their best player. But injuries have really taken a toll, as this is a team rolling out Nikola Djordjevic on the wing in an effort to rotate. No offense to Nikola, but that will put you at a disadvantage against most teams.

The entire front line was poor on Tuesday and looked disjointed but I thought the midfield combo of Oliver Larraz and Andres Cubas continues to look strong, albeit with much less progressive passing ability than when Sebastian Berhalter was in the mix. I’d expect Sorensen to use the Juarez and Tigres matches to experiment and try and hit on a combination of players in the attack that looks a bit more comfortable. Balancing that with escaping any more injuries (Edier Ocampo holding his knee in the first minute of the Atlante match was a real scare) will help find a way of salvaging some utility out of this Leagues Cup campaign.

Finally, there are multiple credible reports that the Caps are closing in on acquiring Daniel Gazdag from the Columbus Crew. I’ll opine more Monday if this solidifies but I think this is a smart move from a “grab a good, cheap, MLS-proven player” standpoint but not as helpful from a “replace Sebastian Berhalter” perspective.

Shameless Self Promotion

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